R/C Naval Combat

I just saw something incredible today.  Reading through the IRCWCC forum, I saw RichelieuBB posted an analysis of the 2011 Nats.  What impressed me was his listed accuracy stat.  He said:

Posted By RichelieuBB on 27 Jul 2011 04:24 PM

Hit Percentage (based on total number of available BBs vs # of counted holes)

     Allied: 17.2%
     Axis: 33.0% 

 By the hit percentage, the Axis fleet did an incredible 33% average compared to the Allied 17.2% average.  Not that 17.2% is bad either compared to the average 13% - 15% traditionally seen in past Nats.
 Yet 33% is amazing for a week of battling.  The Axis fleet also managed to shoot 39.9% in the Monday AM battle whereas the Allies only managed a 21.7% during the Tuesday AM battle.
 The percentage was derived by taking the total number of BBs available to each fleet for each battle and dividing that figure by the total number of holes counted.  Of course, these are raw numbers due to the fact that not all ships shot all of their BBs before calling 5 or before sinking.  Additionally, ships with half unit pumps may cause a small variation in the final percentage.

To me, a Big Gunner, a 15% hit rate is simply astounding.  Incredible.  The only ships I've ever seen exceed that hit rate were torpedo-cruisers, and those are the exception, not the rule.  For most Big Gun ships, a 5% hit rate is a more appropriate expectation.  I carry nearly 1,000 rounds of ammo in my battleship Prinz Eugen, and if I leave 50 holes in my targets then either I'm extremely lucky or my target broke down and didn't surrender.

I know that torpedo-cruisers have a very high hit rate.  An average of 25%, and in some cases, as high as 75%.  But they only get four to six shots in a sortie, so it makes sense that they try to make those few shots count.

So why do Fast Gun ships have such a high hit rate?

The fleet has done me very proud.....

Cookies and icepops for everyone!

Darth Iceman

Posted By thegeek on 03 Aug 2011 12:10 PM
Darth the sea is in flux, your scores in this victory should make you think.
2010 victory for Axis by 46,000 points
2011 victory for Axis by 18,000 points
What does next year bring?

What does next year bring?  An even smaller gap between the Axis and Allies.  It's like the mathematical concept of limits, where Y (the difference in points) approaches zero as X (the number of Nats) approaches infinity.  Always getting closer, but never actually getting there.  Axis team BANZAI!

Back on topic, I would love to run a few battles with different rules to see what improves accuracy, but I think I'll have a hard time convincing other members of my local club to do so.  The easiest thing to test is ROF.  It only takes a couple seconds for a Big Gun cannon to recharge, easily less than half the allowed 6 or 8 second ROF.  And if you get over-eager and fire too fast, the cannons won't be fully recharged and fire weak.  I'd bet that makes a big difference, but again I don't think many other WWCCers would want to try it out.  What I'd really love to do is reduce armor thicknesses in addition to an ROF increase, but doing that would be nearly impossible since it requires everyone to re-sheet their boats.

The rate of fire may change accuracy but I would be interested to see the difference between a rotates battle and a fixed gun battle in Big Gun. That should be easy to do and requires no resheeting or rate changes.

I wonder how that would affect accuracy.

I hear of a lot of new allied ships to join the fleet. I don't think that translates to accuracy. It took me a few years to get mine to run well  without worrying about shooting good. Where are the old time tested reliable ships like the pair of Yammers the Axis had for years? By the way, this year was a year without either captain battling for the Axis. The Axis fleet seemed a bit smaller than usual.

The better fast gun cannons in the hobby with a good tweak are averaging 240 - 260 feet per second. The fastest cannons using a tight tweak have been recorded close to 290 feet per second.